The football coaches can't be found in their offices or on the practice fields now. Coaches around the nation are on the road recruiting, trying to woo promising high school athletes.

But for coaches at schools whose athletes have not enjoyed academic success, recruiting might soon become more difficult.

The NCAA's recent passing of Proposition 24 will make the graduation rates of student athletes available to prospective high school recruits, their parents and coaches beginning in 1991 for Division I schools.

Prop 24 should not have a dramatic effect on Penn State's program, coaches and administrators said.

Football coach Joe Paterno, who attended the NCAA convention where Prop 24 was passed, hailed the decision in the Jan. 10 issue of The Daily Collegian. As a coach well-known for the emphasis he places on academics, Paterno already uses his team's high graduation rate to help recruit highs school players.

Paterno has reason to be proud of his player's graduation rate.

The College Football Association (CFA) calculated the graduation rate of Penn State's 1982 football recruiting class as over 90 percent. The entering class of 1983 had over 70 percent graduate. Since athletes are given five years to graduate, these statistics are the most recent available, said L. Budd Thalman, associate athletic director for communications.

Senior football captain Andre Collins remembers discussions about graduation rates when he was recruited. "They boasted about 80 some percent graduating . . . education always played a role for me (in deciding which school to attend)," he said.

Though senior Rich Schonewolf doesn't recall graduation rates specifically being talked about when he was recruited at Penn State, he does know that the recruiters stressed academics.

"Personally, I think it's a great idea," he said. "You read all the time where guys come out and can't even read. (These schools) have been cutting corners. They won't be able to do this now that they have to make (graduation rates) public."

Although they are not automatically provided with official graduation rates from the athletic director's office, many other coaches also already provide their recruits with at least approximate graduation rates.

Men's basketball coach Bruce Parkhill stresses academics in recruiting. "We talk about players and who has graduated, yes we do, and I'm in favor of that ruling (Prop 24). I think that's important for a high school prospect and his parents to know how kids have achieved within given programs they're considering."

In Parkhill's seven of years coaching at Penn State, only one player has not graduated, and he is only six credits away from getting his diploma. Because he already uses graduation rates as a tool in recruitment, Parkhill doesn't believe that the implementation of Prop 24 will have a significant effect on the basketball program.

Other team graduation rates include:

-- Women's basketball -- only two women in Coach Rene Portland's 10 years of coaching have not graduated.

-- Wrestling -- only two scholarship wrestlers in Coach Rich Lorenzo's 12 years of coaching have not graduated.

-- Men's gymnastics -- Coach Karl Schier can't recall even one athlete in 14 years who hasn't graduated.

-- Women's gymnastics -- only two women gymnasts have not graduated in Judi Avener's 17 years of coaching.

Women's tennis coach Jan Bortner emphasizes his team's more than 90 percent graduation rate when recruiting. "Graduation rates are especially important in my sport because there's not much scholarship money available. We want players who are willing to look at academics," he said. "I think everyone is in favor of it (Prop 24). They've needed to pass it for a long time. I'm not sure what took them so long."

NCAA Faculty Representative John Coyle said Penn State voted in favor of this proposition.

"We saw this as another step in improving the academic credibility for student athletes competing in intercollegiate competition by making schools publish rates," he said.

He explained that occasionally a school's low student-athlete graduation rates leak out to the public and become a source of embarrassment to all schools. By making it mandatory to publish these rates, schools should be encouraged to improve low rates by recruiting athletes they think will succeed academically at their institution and by providing better support systems for athletes.

Coyle explained that before Prop 24 was passed, the NCAA required schools to complete a standard comprehensive form that reported the uniformly calculated graduation rates of recruited and or scholarship athletes as well as the graduation rate of the general student population. The NCAA collected these forms for three years and used them to research whether action was needed to raise low graduation rates.